So, I guess most of us have that one friend that like to play with Lego mini-figures instead of frames. Either because is all of what they have or they simply seem to enjoy it.

Would be way out of the spirit of the setting to have a semi-official race of giant humanoids, just like Macross has the Zentradi? I guess it could make the game more inclusive, so whoever plays with minifigs will not feel excluded from the fluff.

I'm not sure what origin we could give them. They could be aliens, mutated humans from a forgotten colony, many explanations could work.

"For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love." Carl Sagan

I personally think that it doesn't really matter, as the story doesn't actually effect gameplay. But I don't think it would be too far from the game setting, as the setting already has species different from humans, and the Ljad even possess intelligence equal to or greater than humans. So I think a race of giant humanoids capable of building weapons isn't too far out there.

The LF-D5 "Stub" is the top of the line in agriculture frames, designed to haul heavy farm equipment. It is also easy to repair, with standardized connections between all joints. Buy one today.

Giants are fine with me. However, there are physical limits that may become an issue if you want it to be "scientifically" plausible.

They could be frames operated by pygmies ? This fixes any size/scale issue, the pygmies are smaller so they fit in the minifig. The pygmies may not even be anthropomorphic. Not a cop out, bear with me for a second

Various theories have been proposed to explain the short stature of pygmies. Some studies suggest that it could be related to adaptation to low ultraviolet light levels in rainforests.[9][10] This might mean that relatively little vitamin D can be made in human skin, thereby limiting calcium uptake from the diet for bone growth and maintenance, and leading to the evolution of the small skeletal size.[11]

Other explanations include lack of food in the rainforest environment, low calcium levels in the soil, the need to move through dense jungle, adaptation to heat and humidity, and as an association with rapid reproductive maturation under conditions of early mortality.[12] (See also Aeta people § Demographics.) Other evidence points towards unusually low levels of expression of the genes encoding the growth hormone receptor and growth hormone compared to the related tribal groups, associated with low serum levels of insulin-like growth factor-1 and short stature.[13]

So maybe the space pygmies originated from a distant sector of space where. For some reason*, they did not have access to a lot of resources and were rather peaceful.After thousands of years of evolution, they started building spaceships to get out and gather "stuff" to keep building, researching etc. (And before that, they needed machines to build those ships, so they already have the technology to build some king of frame.) They started exploring, got in contact with "the rest of the galaxy" and got tangled into the interstellar conflict.Of course, they started losing. But they applied their knowledge to this new field called war. As they had no previous experience, they decided to shape their frames like humans. For a simple reason : humans are the warmongers !

I believe the spirit of MFZ is that you can "play" with the cannon material as much as you want, just like the bricks used to build units. So create any faction you like, or take the game in a different setting if you like it better that way See section "Creating your own settings & rule hacks", page 137 of the rules : "Maybe the battles are fought with tanks and infantry rather than robots ? Maybe they're giant monsters ?"

* : Handwavium right here, any idea ? Dying star may work here : maybe the other planets from their star system went rogue and left their orbits + their star's light is not that great ?

Huge 50 feet high humanoids like in Macross might be scientifically unfeasible, but I believe that 12 feet humanoids are a fair and believable stretch. (There where bears and giant sloths of that size, they might not be 100% humanoid but I think they show that it might not be impossible)

The pygmies idea is a lot of fun!

"For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love." Carl Sagan

What Omega said, we don't need to shoe horn a reason within the story or fluff to use the minifigs. Just use them but I would recommend putting them on 4x4 plates be it round or square for more stability and perhaps for the measuring ref.

Shades_Corvid wrote:What Omega said, we don't need to shoe horn a reason within the story or fluff to use the minifigs. Just use them but I would recommend putting them on 4x4 plates be it round or square for more stability and perhaps for the measuring ref.

I think it would be cool to have it on the fluff, ya know, just to "feel" more official, some people actually care a lot about those things. I'm not one of them, but I know many.

"For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love." Carl Sagan

VitorFaria wrote:So, I guess most of us have that one friend that like to play with Lego mini-figures instead of frames. Either because is all of what they have or they simply seem to enjoy it.

Would be way out of the spirit of the setting to have a semi-official race of giant humanoids, just like Macross has the Zentradi? I guess it could make the game more inclusive, so whoever plays with minifigs will not feel excluded from the fluff.

I'm not sure what origin we could give them. They could be aliens, mutated humans from a forgotten colony, many explanations could work.

Funnily enough, in the first ever game I played of MF0, all we had available to use were minifigs - movement systems included bikes, weapon systems included coffee cups, swords and spears, and so on. It was great fun, though representing white die loss was interesting: body parts littered the battlefield at the end.

Also, as Shades_Corvid said, bases are a good idea for minifigs.

Another way to incorporate minifigs is to rescale to their size: Instead of making the minifigs giants, the frames everyone else uses are actually robots, power armour suits (depending on their shape and bulk), or even alien creatures.

VitorFaria wrote:Huge 50 feet high humanoids like in Macross might be scientifically unfeasible, but I believe that 12 feet humanoids are a fair and believable stretch. (There where bears and giant sloths of that size, they might not be 100% humanoid but I think they show that it might not be impossible)

You're right to point out that they are not as tall as the frames (which is what I pictured at first). After all, these giants are not that tall, like you said, 12 feet (about 3.6 meters) at 7p scale. They even have big square feet to support them.

I am glad you liked the pygmies idea

Back to the "origins" question, mutating humans would need too many generations unless you introduce gene splicing. What about a colony with a research lab, originally deployed to study the space travel / isolation effects on human DNA ? Throw a cult into the mix : "Machines prevent us from evolving / are evil / could turn against us, we are the next step in human evolution". This could encourage research and public acceptance of gene splicing tests in that colony. The research findings are welcomed by the community, who can't wait to be the fathers and mothers to the new homo sapiens gigantus.Once they attained their goal (viable giant mutated human with yellow skin and claw hands), they unleashed their troops on the galaxy in a crusade to destroy inferior species.

Jagarmot wrote:Back to the "origins" question, mutating humans would need too many generations unless you introduce gene splicing. What about a colony with a research lab, originally deployed to study the space travel / isolation effects on human DNA ? Throw a cult into the mix : "Machines prevent us from evolving / are evil / could turn against us, we are the next step in human evolution". This could encourage research and public acceptance of gene splicing tests in that colony. The research findings are welcomed by the community, who can't wait to be the fathers and mothers to the new homo sapiens gigantus.Once they attained their goal (viable giant mutated human with yellow skin and claw hands), they unleashed their troops on the galaxy in a crusade to destroy inferior species.

The racialist motto is just an excuse, the SU simply rose their taxes too much.

"For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love." Carl Sagan